Item 48: Letter from William Judd to Zebulon Butler (removed to legal size box #1), 1783 September 15
Item — Box: 10, Folder: 88
Dates
- Created: 1783 September 15
Creator
- Judd, William, 1743-1804 (Person)
Access:
All series and subseries within this collection are open for research, with the exception of a few files within the Academia series that are restricted. The Academia series contains financial and sensitive institutional records from Wilkes College, and financial report records from Princeton University that will remain restricted for 80 years upon creation.
Extent
1 items
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Type of Material:
Letter.
Condition Note:
Good. Some vinegar smell.
Measurements:
12 ½ in. x 8 in.
Description:
This letter, dated September 15, 1783, is written by William Judd to Zebulon Butler, a lieutenant colonel during the American Revolutionary War. In the letter, Judd is writing to Butler to inform him on recent events in the region whose information incoming is giving himself, Captain Daniel Gore and Colonels Eliphalet Dyer and Jesse Root. Judd is asking Butler’s attention on Connecticut’s interest in this issue, suggesting that they have a duty to preserve their position to the question of lands at hand or they may not be able to address it again later. Though the question or conflict at hand are not expressly named, it is likely that Judd is speaking to the issue of titles and lands following the onset of the third Yankee Pennamite War.
The Yankee Pennamite Wars were a three part war between Connecticut and Pennsylvania, as they attempted to resolve a dispute over the land in the upper regions of what is now Pennsylvania. King Charles II granted the land twice, once to Connecticut in 1662, and again to William Penn as he founded Pennsylvania in 1681.
The Third Yankee Pennamite War was a military conflict following the Decree of Trenton decision to grant Pennsylvania ownership to the lands after decades of conflict between Connecticut and Pennsylvania. However, while the Decree of Trenton gave Pennsylvania the right to soil, it did not give them the right to title. Pennsylvania, however, under the command of the Pennsylvania Assembly and Patterson, forcibly removed “one-hundred and fifty” Connecticut families from their homes under Patterson’s command. They forced the families to “find their way through the wilderness of the Lackawaxen to the Delaware Valley, a distance of about eighty miles,” without supplies or clothing to sustain them (Gnichtel, The Trenton Decree of 1782). The violence and brutality levied by Patterson’s troops was so severe that it drew attention from neighboring states, and condemnation on the governing bodies of Pennsylvania. That critique ultimately led the Pennsylvania Assembly to remove Patterson from his position within the valley around July 1784, replacing him with colonel John Armstrong.
Location:
Farmington, CT
Transcription:
Farmington Sept[embe]r 15th 1783
Sir,
The information rec[eive]d by Mr Gore has roused Colo[nel] Dyer
and Colo[nel] Root & by my particular attention to the Interest
of the Susq[uehanna]h Company, & the settlers: they have forwarded
to you a Letter Suggesting the Necessity of a full and
Critical Inquiry of Colo[nel] Cox[e] relative to our Papers
in the Hands of the Pensylvania (sic) [Pennsylvania] Agents The Interest
Judge Brairley his Brothers & near Kinsmen
had in the HLands in Dispatch— I need not say
Our Honour as a State requires we should be
particular in Our researches after Every thing
that will have a Tendency to place us in a better
Light with Our Neighbours — add to this our
Interest Calls upon us to Double Our Diligence
for if this Oppurtunity (sic) [opportunity] is Sliped (sic) [Slips; if this opportunity slips away] the State may never again attend to the Question—. I think Colo[nel] Stewart
& Samuel Wallis might be played upon; they ~~
Mortally hate Each Other; & by telling One what the
Other says sumthing (sic) [something] of Importance may most
probably ^be found, that will Serve our Interest. Act
must be made use off if any attempt is made ~~
upon them. Capt[ain] Spaulding can tell you the
Distracted Situation of the Country. The Situation of the
Officers of the army – & the Measures They have taken with
the state of New York, if we Succeed shall be happy in
your Company Assistance &c [etcetera] Compliments to Mr. & Mrs.
Johnson, Mrs. Butler & the Settlers in General I am D[ea]r
Sir your humble servant—
W[illia]m Judd
Colo[nel] Butler
Back:
Maj[o]r Judd 15th Sept[embe]r 1783
Back:
Maj[o]r Judd 15th Sept[embe]r 1783
Creator
- Judd, William, 1743-1804 (Person)
Repository Details
Part of the Wilkes University Archives Repository
Contact:
84 W South St.
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 US
570-408-2000
570-408-7823 (Fax)
ask.archives@wilkes.edu
84 W South St.
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 US
570-408-2000
570-408-7823 (Fax)
ask.archives@wilkes.edu